Pioneer Press | Critics like Best Buy’s ‘innovative’ Super Bowl ad

February 6, 2012

Best Buy’s Super Bowl ad, featuring inventors who created innovations for cellphones, is drawing praise from advertising pros, although the wider public greeted it with a shrug.

The 30-second spot veered from the Super Bowl ad practice of using celebrities and showcased real people who invented features like the camera phone, text messaging and the ability to translate voice into text.

Mike Gatti, executive director of the Retail Advertising and Marketing Association, on Monday chose the Best Buy spot as one of the game’s five best commercials.

Stuart Elliott, advertising columnist for the New York Times, also highlighted the Best Buy spot as one of the few “gems amid the rhinestones.” The Times columnist wrote, “A year after a silly Super Bowl spot with Justin Bieber and Ozzy Osbourne, Best Buy celebrated real achievement with a commercial honoring technological innovators.”

The broader public, however, wasn’t as impressed. The USA Today Facebook Super Bowl ad meter, which invites everyone to choose their favorites, rated the Best Buy commercial a lowly 43rd out of the 58 Super Bowl ads. Best Buy shares rose 3.4 percent Monday to $24.67. [...]